What started out as a seemingly hollow prediction has become as true a statement as any. First, American involvement began with funding, arming, and training violent rebels to try to overthrow the Syrian government. Then came attempts to misrepresent so-called “intelligence” to justify military intervention against Assad in 2013. And finally, like a dream come true, Washington was then able to capitalize on the growth of ISIS in Syria, a growth predicted by their own security establishment in 2012, which then became an excuse to start bombing Syrian territory in 2014. By interfering so forcibly in the affairs of Syria, the U.S. has forced a number of countries — notably Iran, China and Russia — to step up and strike back at U.S. efforts to destabilize the region.

Since the beginning of the conflict, Iran has been heavily involved due to the fact Syria is an important ally to the Islamic republic, bound by a mutual defense agreement. Much to the anger of the U.S., just this week, Iran allowed Russia to strike Syrian territory from its Hamadan air base. Iran is supplying ground troops, advisement, and high level training to Syrian pro-Assad forces. They are also providing a credit line, and Iranian involvement is growing in tandem with the two nuclear powers also working in defense of the Syrian regime.

China has sided with Russia and Syria for some time now, using its veto power at the U.N Security Council level to block resolutions on Syria - after Russia and China were completely duped by the Security Council resolution on Libya in 2011. China has warned the U.S. against attacking Syria and Iran, and now, they have officially stated they are looking to join the fight on the side of the Syrian government, further complicating the issue from Washington’s standpoint.

Unless the U.S. wants to confront these players directly, it has no choice but to accept that they have lost a war they directly and indirectly started through covert CIA operations that began in 2011 (and as some would argue, well before that). This isn’t a loss in the Iraq or Vietnam sense — which are arguably victories in the eyes of the elite class. Rather, the Syrian war is an operation that has left them with less influence in the region than when the Syrian crisis began (cue picture of John Kerry dining with Bashar al-Assad in Damascus in 2009).

It will be back to the drawing board for Washington, whose only real move is to continue arming and funding fanatical jihadists or encourage Saudi Arabia and Turkey to deliver on their threat to send ground troops into Syria. This will only delay the inevitable, however, and eventually they will have to either admit they have completely lost influence in the Shia-Crescent region of the Middle East — which has, in turn, been snatched up by Russia and China — or directly confront these nuclear powers in an all-out war.

The alliance is getting bigger. Turkey, the Philippines (where US bases are probably the strongest in the region)...and more to come. Too many nations are currently passive victims/whores to the western corporate/political powers. It's about to change.

The US, NATO, UAE and Saudi Arabia were never invited into Syria, so get the fuck out. On the other hand, Russia and Iran are Syrian allies, with Turkey apparently leaving the Dark Side to join them. What does the US expect when it tries to overthrow another Middle Eastern country, or two, or three, or four, keep counting (Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Syria ...)

these vile spawn could learn something from the next poster, my_apple, and make the big bucks from home on the interwebz. methinks we would all be better off. oh, wait... they make way more doing what they are doing already...

That "hell hole" you refer to (Syria) was doing ok before the US and CIA decided regime change was the next step, along with Lybia, Egypt, etc. Christians were living alongside Sunni, along with Shia and Baathists. Wasn't perfect, but Assad kept the peace and they all coexisted. Instead, you have tens of thousands dead, another country destroyed, and millions of people displaced. But yeah, let the Russians and Chinese have the "hell hole". Fucking moron.

Christmas lights in Damascus. Syria is probably more important to Christianity than the Rev John Hagee, Jonath Pollard, USS Liberty cuntry. They just schemed to murder Jesus and he did not really like his own people just like Bobby Fischer.

Ahhhh, that explains why millions of US citizens holiday in the middle east every year, and why the friendly locals welcome them with special flag burning rituals, where they dance for the tourists shouting Alluh Akhbar.

don't you mean israel lost the mid east. the usa interest has only ever been oil until dc was captured by the zionazis. now the oil supply is as tenuous as it has ever been(when does the petrodollar die?) and israel has its back against the med, the israelis ready to flee like haitians in rickety boats to cyprus and a few lucky ones flying to nyc and london.

if they implement the samson plan there won't be enough jews left to make everyone feel sorry for them. without their treasured victim status they are nothing, as they should be, with the clout of haiti.